The Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans should relinquish its independence and be fully folded into City Hall's oversight, Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux announced Tuesday (Aug. 22) in an open letter to Mayor Mitch Landrieu and the City Council.

Quatrevaux's request repeated a similar call he made in 2012 after he questioned whether the embattled agency could properly manage $2 billion in federal disaster aid awarded by FEMA.

The current drainage crisis that has gripped the S&WB gave Quatrevaux another platform to bolster his case. In his letter, he listed a series of investigations his office has done in the past five years that he said exposes the shortcomings of the agency's management. They mainly focused on accounting weaknesses that may have made the agency vulnerable to fraud and abuse.

"The recent drainage failures demonstrate that an organization cannot perform poorly in finance and administration yet perform well in operations," Quatrevaux wrote.

The S&WB holds an unusual place in New Orleans' government. It is a state-created agency that dates back to 1898. Its board of directors -- chaired by the mayor -- has undergone various alterations over the years, but the executive director and general superintendent have typically run the day-to-day operations.

Whether to make it a city agency has been a long-running argument. It would require changes to state law and the city charter, as well as reconciling the fact that the S&WB is a rate-charging utility with residential and business customers.

For now, the water board shares upkeep of New Orleans' drainage system with the Department of Public Works, a city agency.